The year 2021 was a monumental year for Thomas Tuchel and his Chelsea team as they fought to win their second Champions League title in history, but in the space of only four years after such a successful, and promising season, the flip of the script at Stamford Bridge is something nobody could have ever imagined.
Thomas Tuchel brought his managerial talents to Stamford Bridge after a two year stint in Paris as his bid to fight for the coveted Champions League title continued in West London. Tuchel was largely regarded as one of the best managers in the world at the time, and still is, but with a potentially dangerous team in front of him, Chelsea looked poised for a successful year.
With fresh faces like Timo Werner, Kai Havertz, and homegrown talent like Mason Mount and Reece James, Tuchel had a combination of talent and potential at his disposal, and created a team of misfits often forgotten in UCL history.
After a disappointing fourth place finish in the Premier League, Tuchel found himself in the Champions League final following a magnificent display of football against some of the best teams in Europe including Real, and Atletico Madrid. Through the highs of the Champions League, and the lows of the Premier League, Tuchel’s managerial brilliance guided Chelsea back to the pinnacle of European football, and saw his side lift the Champions League trophy, a team of players you could never imagine could have won it.
But four years on, Chelsea find themselves with only one of the winners, the 10 others forgotten in history. With captain Reece James being the only of the winners left from the 2021 winners, Havertz, Werner, Mount, Jorginho, and Chilwell, all starters for Tuchel’s tricky Blues, all play on the opposite side of the ball in the Premier League. Mount dressed in the Manchester red, Jorginho and Havertz coated in arch rival Arsenal, and Chilwell, ruined by injuries, playing in the red and blue of Crystal Palace. With 2021 in fragments of their former squad, others have taken their talents elsewhere. Former captain and club legend Azpilicueta returned to Atletico Madrid, Thiago Silva reunited with his family in Brazil, Mendy and Kante tempted by Saudi money, and Rudiger playing for the best of the best, commanding the defense in Madrid under Ancelotti. The 2021 Chelsea we once knew, are now a bundle of players, once rented for their talents to win the biggest prize of them all.
With the entire bench gone, and only one of the starting 11 still remaining, you wonder how things changed so quickly at Chelsea, and how different they are today. Once led into battle by Azpilicueta, now led into war with Colwill, with Mount and Havertz both leaving for red, it is Cole Palmer who takes the name Mr. Chelsea, and with goalkeeping problems up to their necks, the thought of Mendy in between the sticks can only be imagined by Blues fans.
But it was the final straw with Tuchel. A manger once showered in European glory, undermined by new ownership, and booted out the door with no hesitation. His success and brilliance disregarded, leaving his once team of winners, into a team of individuals and has beens. 2020/21 will forever be a Champions League winning team which will be forgotten in time, and the swift turnaround from European champions to Premier League strugglers will be a story nobody could ever write, a team so truly successful, picked apart in a matter of years.
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